Roseburg review. [volume] (Roseburg, Or.) 1885-1920, 1887-01-07
lyDtsrKIlL EnucArroN
BY ID. L. <Irnoid, President Stote -IJricu,-
tarat College.

duStflal SCHOOLS Justify their existence, |
and what is their object ? They must
Justify their existence either a BY |
what they have done, or by what they
are doing, or by what they are in
tended to do, of course by any or all |
Of these. The first two points are mat |
ters of statistics and inference, the
third matter of speculation. II
will devote few lines to this last, viz:
What are industrial colleges intended
to do There are two things that they
are not intended to dol One is to
increase the number of farmers and
the other to make caste or perpetuate
it. These they are not intended to
do. The amount of labor devoted to
is already sufficient to
supply the market of the world and
no more is needed, hence the regret
that SO many young men leave the
farms and enter upon other business
is not pertinent to the subject. Again
Agricultural colleges are not intended
to create Or perpetuate caste, it would
seem needless to say this, but the re-
malk that one frequently hears that
the colleges lead farmers sons from
the farm, implies that they, the sons
of farmers, onght to stay on the farms,
if this be true Of the farmer it is true
of the lawyer, the doctor, the preacher,
the merchant, the shoemaker, the black
smith ETC. and this is caste. One of
the benefits OF industrial schools is that
they tend to destroy castles. If there
be more advantages in other pursuits
than in farming, it is the worst op-
preston to try to prevent aR escape
from this pursuit by the young men OF
the land, and it is time to bring farming
up to the level of such pursuits as are
more excellent and ennobling. We
must by some means strive to rem
der farming as desirable pursuit as
any other if it be not SO already, now
let rs devote few words to the posi-
tive side OF the question. The first
object in agriculture and mechanical
education is to fill the country with
educated laborers, truly, says John
Locke, Gin men of low and mean ed
ucation who have never elevated their
Thoughts above the spade and pIow, nor
looked beyond the ordinary drudgery
of day laborer You will find him nc
more capable of reasoning than almost
perfect mediocre such man..cannot
be as efficient in his labor as an in
telligent one" a strong and enligh tened
writer says, "all intelligent community
of workmen will get through theil
work quicker, will fit It's parts more
nicely, will finish off every thing more
sharply, will waste less material by
trial and error, and SO give highe
value as well as quality and durabilit,
to all their work, than ignorant un
refined, and i'll educated men. Th
highest value in the worlds market
will be obtained by that nation whicl
has been at most pains to cultivate th
intelligence of its people generally, ant
often words to give EACH Sthe highes
education and training in this specia
calling" Technical education Will
it makes better workmen, makes a
the same time better men, better clsi
zens, one who is more ready to lister
to suggestions and to think before h
acts, whose range Of vision sweeps
larger field and sees this field more
clearly, whose mind is more open tc
conviction AMI argument, whose will i
less rigid and obstinate. But the sec
ond and most important object of tech
nical education and particularly 0
that branch of it that relates to agri
culture is to prevent retrograd
movement of civilization. Civilization
depends upon the division of labor, thi
again depends upon the amount of sur
plus food and raiment produced by the
farmer, if this surplus is great, larg
number of men can devote themselve
to other pursuits, if the surplus b
small smaller, number can pursue
other occupations, brt as land becomes
| exhausted and population becomes
Igreater, mores work must be done t.
create the same surplus as before, o
the same amount of work must be NOR
productive than before; hence tn
necessity of better methods of farming
and more intelligent labor. Suppose
for example that there are 50,000,00(
of people in the United States to-da,
and that of these, 100000 are farm
ers; these 100000 produce foo'
enough for themselves and familie
and the remaining 45,000,00o. Nov
if the population should remain the
same and the soil become worn out
the 100000 could no longer produce
the same amount of food and raimen
as before and hence either the numbe
of farmers must be increased at the ex
pense of the 100000 or else TIL
100000 must be aided by improve
methods CT farming, if this could no
be done civilization must suffer. Nov
this is the actual tendency of thing